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Required Reading for English Graduate Students
The collection of thirteen essays edited by Peter C. Herman in Day Late, Dollar Short:The Next Generation and the New Academy is bound to become required reading for graduate students in English studies. The closely woven together essays embark on devising a better understanding of what Jeffrey Williams coins the "Posttheory Generation," which he defines as "the generation of intellectual workers who have entered the literary field and attained professional positions in the late 1980s and through the 1990s" (25). The members of this generation did not receive their theory first-hand, but rather "received the various approaches and epistemologies signified by the shorthand term Theory, second-, if not thirdhand. Theory is something we . . . are taught in graduate school, not something that we discovered for ourselves as its originary moment" (Herman 1). The scholars in this book find "most of the next generation has uncritically and unproblematically accepted these theoretical paradigms" and base the reasoning for accepting such theories without question on the uncertain job market that lies ahead for these Posttheory academics (2). Herman finds there is an "increasing, if subtle, pressure to write not what we feel, but what we thing we ought to say," so we may land a decent (e.g. tenure-track) job and an acceptable (e.g. research-based) institution with a livable e.g. (less than 4/4)teaching load in an ever-increasingly difficult job market where the corporatization of the academy is pushing the envelope on its members' academic freedom (4). Much of what the book states is not good news. The Next Generation has a bumpy road ahead of itself for those who seek employment in the New Academy.

In short, Herman's Day Late, Dollar Short: The Next Generation and the New Academy is an important, readable book. It is sure to spark much debate between the complacent past, frustrated current, and uncertain future professorate who follow the climate of life in the academy. Graduate students and faculty in English studies should carefully examine this book to gain insight into the theory wars of the past and the looming storms on the horizon, especially in light of the turbulent job markets and the possibility of corporatization of the academy. While the book does not sugar-coat the current or future academic conditions, it offers constructive ways of examining the fate of literary criticism's place in the academy so we may become active agents in shaping its future.